DISCLAIMER: I don't
own any characters. They are owned by UPN and the shows creators.
No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is made.

RATING: PG13

SPOILERS: Through
Ruskie Business (1x15)

SUMMARY: Veronica
places a call to Logan feeling she has no other choice

COUPLES: Veronica &
Logan

FEEDBACK: Please, I
can't write better without it.

DATE STARTED: March
2005

STATUS: Complete

Veronica sat in her car
not sure what had happened. Her mother had been there one minute and
the next she was gone. She had been allowed to leave and was still
not sure why. The gas nozzle popped, causing her to jump. It was
not like her to startle so easily. What girl wouldn't be in her
situation? Her mother was around here somewhere, Veronica could feel
it.

She flipped open her
phone as she replaced the nozzle to the pump and went into the store
to pay for the gas.

"Hello?"

"Logan, hi, it's
Veronica."

"Ronnie, to what do I
owe the dubious honor of a phone call when you know I'm hung over?"

"I'm sorry," she
said with a cringe. She had forgotten about his condition until he
mentioned it. She had been so focused on finding her mother and then
actually seeing her after all these months that she did not think.
"I'll let you go."

"No, wait, Veronica,
what is it?"

"I was hoping you
could come to Barstow."

"You were hoping I'd
come to Barstow?"

"That's what I
said. What are you a parrot?"

"Why don't you have
your cop friend come help you? You two seemed awfully cozy last
night," he said. She could picture him waggling his eyebrows
suggestively over the phone and rolled her eyes. She threw up her
hands in frustration.

She had forgotten about
Leo in her rush to find her mother. She had kissed him, had liked
kissing him. It was not an earth shattering, firework invoking kiss
but it was nice. So, why was she calling Logan Echolls for help
instead of Leo?

"I found my mother."
This was followed by silence. Veronica paid the clerk for the gas
and returned to her car. "Logan?"

"I'll be there by
noon. Where will you be?"

"Um," she said, her
eyes scanning the highway. "There's a no tell motel on the
highway, The Seascape Inn. I don't see a sea, but that's the
name of it. I'll be there, look for my car."

"Veronica, I had no
idea you felt this way about me. A hotel? This isn't some ploy to
get me alone is it?"

"I haven't slept
yet, silly," she said and noticed her smile was wide and goofy
looking in her rear view mirror. She shook her head wondering why
she bothered trying to talk to Logan sometimes.

"Be there by noon,"
he said and then he was gone. The call had been disconnected.

She checked into the
room, no questions asked as she suspected would be the case and
pulled her bag out of her trunk. She always traveled prepared, just
in case. She could be gone for up to a week and not run out of clean
clothes or protein bars. They tasted nasty but if push came to
shove, she would at least survive. And they could not taste any
worse if they were stale, so she figured she would not notice the
difference.

She locked the door,
drawing the paper-thin curtains closed so no one could peak in and
see her sleeping. She had requested a room away from the highway.
Hopefully, Logan would think to look in the back of the motel for her
car. She did not need anyone else paying her a visit while she
slept.

Veronica woke with a
start. She knew she was not alone in the room. Her eyes scanned the
room, settling on the figure standing by the window as they adjusted
to the light.

"Logan?" she asked.

"That's right,
sleepy head."

She noticed a cup
holder with two very tall cups of coffee in it. "You're a god
send," she said sitting up in bed. He took a seat beside her after
handing her one of the cups of coffee. "Mmm," she said inhaling
the scent of French vanilla.

"I figured you'd be
tired after driving here and I chugged about a gallon of this stuff
on the way down here."

"You look like shit."

"Right back at you,
Ronnie."

"How did you get in
here anyway?"

"You're not the
only one who's good at this detective stuff."

"You picked the
lock?"

"No, I asked the desk
clerk for a key."

"And he gave it to
you?" She had shown the clerk a picture of Logan and told him if
he came around asking about her to tell him where she was. She had
not told him to give him a key.

"I can be very
charming when I want to be."

"I know," she said
sincerely. He could be as picture perfect as a choir boy when he
wanted to be. "I'm sorry for waking you up."

He held up his cup of
coffee in a cheers gesture which she imitated. "It's not a
problem, Veronica Mars. So, what's the game plan?"

She gave him a rundown
of the events that had led them to be in this sleaze bag motel room
together and her idea.

"So, we're going to
go to the bar and wait to see if your mom shows up?"

"And this is worse
than camping out in the hotel lobby why?"

"Meow," he said.
"Watch those claws, Ronnie, they're sharp."

"Well, what else can
I do? I don't know where she's staying or what kind of car she's
driving. All I can do is go back there and hope she'll show up
again, assuming I wouldn't be stupid to go back there again."

"Yeah, most mothers
wouldn't want to think of their daughters having a death wish."

"Would you give up?
Would you go home?" Their eyes met and Veornica had her answer.
He did not have to say a word. He would die trying to find his
mother if he believed she was still alive.

"As if that's any
of your business. Listen, Logan, I'm not ready to start braiding
your hair and exchanging notes in between classes with you."

"Why is that?" he
asked and sounded sincere in his curiosity.

Veronica felt a little
sorry for him. He was stuck with the 09ers while Veronica had moved
on. He was reminded every day of Lilly and the fact he no longer had
her. And despite having his so-called friends surrounding him he was
more alone than she was.

"Logan," she
whispered not sure where this conversation was going. Why did Logan
care who she was kissing? He was not asking for Duncan, because the
former love of her life had officially moved on. She had first, by
way of Troy, but she had been the dumped so she was justified in
moving on.

"What would your
father say if you were here alone with that cop?"

"He wouldn't be
happy," Veronica admitted.

"And what would he
say if he knew you were here with me?"

"He," she started
to say that he would not be happy about it no matter who she was here
with. But that was not quite true. Her dad had never had a bad
thing to say about Logan, even when he found out about Logan's
parents. In fact, her dad had to know how screwed up his family was
long before Logan's mom came to him. "He wouldn't be as
unhappy."

"I didn't think
so," he said rather smugly. He stood from the bed placing both
coffee cups on the table and returned to the bed. Hers was not all
the way empty and it tasted pretty good.

"What are you doing?"
And before she knew it he was kissing her. Just like that. Her
hands were at his chest. Her first thought was to push him away.
This was Logan. He was Lilly's guy. He slid a hand to her face.
His fingers found her hair while his palm cupped her cheek. It was
not so easy to push him away when he was so gentle with her. He
deepened the kiss, his lips parting. He dipped his tongue and licked
along her lower lip and she no longer wanted to push him away. Her
lips parted and their tongues met. He shifted their bodies so she
was no longer sitting on the bed with Logan on top of her.

"Veronica," he
whispered as his mouth found her ear. Her eyes opened and she stared
at the ceiling for a moment willing herself to come back to earth.
No wonder girls were willing to take the scraps he offered on the
side when he was with Lilly.

"Huh?" she said
softly. Her heart was racing and she was having a little problem
breathing at the moment. His lips closed on her earlobe and she felt
as if her eyes might roll back into her head. She had to regain her
composure, to take control of this situation. She was not going to
let Logan Echolls seduce her in a bed that who knows how many others
had been in before today. "Just another minute," she murmured,
not realizing until it was too late she had spoken aloud.

He laughed lightly and
it felt funny against her ear. His hand found her hip, adjusting her
so she fit underneath him just perfectly. Perfect for what? "Oh
God, Logan," she whispered, feeling as if someone had splashed a
bucket of cold water over her. "We can't."

"Why not?" He
laced her neck with kisses and gentle nips, a few bordering on love
mark territory. If he was trying to distract her he was doing a bang
up job. She could feel him pressing against her and knew if she said
yes there would be no going back. He was more than ready and
apparently willing and able, too. She was able and pretty close to
being ready. It was the willing part that she was having trouble
with.

"Logan," she
whispered again, though she did not sound that convincing even to
herself.

"I think I'm
falling for you, Veronica."

"Oh God, no, Logan,
don't say that," she said. "I'm a mess."

"So am I," he said,
kissing her collarbone.

"I don't have room
for a guy in my life, Logan."

"So I'll be the one
you come to when you have room."

She closed her eyes,
feeling tears welling in them that she did not want him to see. She
did not think she would be ready for a relationship ever again after
Duncan had broken up with her. But Logan was tempting her. She
arched into him when he kissed the base of her throat. God was he
ever tempting her.

Her hands slid to his
shoulders where they sought purchase in order to prevent herself from
falling too deep. She suspected it was too late, though. She had to
remember never to invite a guy to meet her at a motel room again.
Hindsight is twenty-twenty as they say.

"Logan. Stop."

"Veronica," he
said, sounding more than a little frustrated.

"We have to stop,
Logan. This isn't right."

"I can't think of
anything more right."

"You're just doing
this because I'm helping you with your mom."

He drew away then, but
did not move from on top of her. His eyes cloudy with desire and she
suspected hers looked the same as his. "No, this has nothing to do
with my mother, Veronica. Leave her out of this."

She reached to touch
his face, cupping his cheek and smiled at him. "When this is done,
when we have the answers about our moms if you still want to then
we'll talk."

He thrust his pelvis
toward her, letting her know that he was now very happy to be there.
"Does that seem like I want to wait until we have answers. That
could take forever, Veronica."

"You do have a
point," she whispered. Instinctively, she shifted her body beneath
his, granting him access that if they were not wearing clothes would
spell trouble. She should have been put off by him, but she found it
a little arousing to know she could do this to him. Think, Veronica.
You do not want your first time to be like this. He is probably
hung over and would have no memory of what they did tomorrow.

"Let's get through
today and then we can go from there."

"Don't you want
me?"

The answer to that was
a double edged sword. If she said yes he would try to convince her
they did not need to wait. If she said no he would get hurt and
upset and what chance they might have could be ruined. A wounded and
upset Logan tended to react the same way, push the person responsible
for the wounding or anger as far away from him as possible. She did
not want to be pushed away. She felt like she had truly found a
friend in Logan, something she had n ever counted on happening. "You
know I do, Logan, but I've learned over the past year or so to
think logically. Let's sleep on it and see where we are when we
wake up."

"You want to sleep?"

She closed her eyes
sensing that he was relenting and nodded slightly. "We need it.
You're hung over and I've been up most of the night." She
needed to keep her eye on the ball. The ball at the moment was
locating her mother somewhere in Barstow.

Funny, when she was
with Leo last night she had no qualms about leaving him at the drop
of a hat. Logan, however, she was tempted to get lost in the moment,
to ride the wave of pleasure he was offering to give her. She had no
doubt he could deliver.

She leaned up, pressure
at his cheek increasing as she drew him toward her. She placed a
kiss to his mouth. "We have plenty of time to figure this out,"
she whispered, having no idea what this really was. Maybe it was
nothing, but she would be a fool not to pursue it and find out for
herself one way or another.

He slid beside her on
the bed. They struggled for a moment, finding whose arm went where
comfortably as they sought to be as close to one another as possible.
Later, they would go out and try to find her mother, but for now
sleep beckoned to both of them and neither were strong enough to
fight it any longer.

The End

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.